Oren re-examines Japan’s threat perception during the first two decades of the Cold War, using a wide range of source materials, including many unavailable in English, or only recently declassified. There is a widely shared misconception that during the Cold War the Japanese were largely shielded from threats due to the American military protection, the regional balance of power, Japan’s geographical insularity, and domestic aversion to militarism. Oren dispels this, showing how security threats pervaded Japanese strategic thinking in this period. By dispelling this misconception, Oren enables us to more accurately gauge the degree to which Japan’s threat perception has evolved during and after the end of the Cold War and to enhance our understanding of Tokyo’s strategic calculus in the current situation of rivalry between China and the United States. This book will be of great value to both scholars of Japanese history and contemporary international relations.

"Oren re-examines Japan's threat perception during the first two decades of the Cold war, using wide range of source materials, including many unavailable in English, or only recently declassified. There is a widely shared misconception that during the cold war the Japanese were largely shielded from threats due to the American military protection, the regional balance of power, Japan's geographical insularity and domestic aversion to militarism. Oren dispels this, showing how security threats pervaded Japanese strategic thinking in this period. By dispelling this misconception, Oren enables us to more accurately gauge the degree to which Japan's threat perception has evolved during and after the end of the cold war and to enhance our understanding of Tokyo's strategic calculus in the current situation of rivalry between China and the USA. This book will be of great value both to scholars of Japanese history and of contemporary international relations"--

Oren re-examines Japan's threat perception throughout the entire Cold war, using a wide range of source materials, including many unavailable in English, or only recently declassified.

Since the end of the Cold War, Japan's security environment has changed significantly. While, on the global level, the United States is still Japan's most important security partner, the nature of the partnership has changed as a result of shifting demands from the United States, new international challenges such as the North Korean nuclear programme and the rapid rise of China. At the same time, Japan has been confronted with new, ‘non-traditional’ security threats such as international terrorism, the spread of infectious diseases, and global environmental problems. On the domestic level, demographic change, labour migration, economic decline, workplace insecurity, and a weakening impact of policy initiatives challenge the sustainability of the lifestyle of many Japanese and have led to a heightened sense of insecurity among the Japanese public. This book focuses on the domestic discourse on insecurity in Japan and goes beyond military security. The chapters cover issues such as Japan’s growing perception of regional and global insecurity; the changing role of military forces; the perceived risk of Chinese foreign investment; societal, cultural and labour insecurity and how it is affected by demographic changes and migration; as well as food insecurity and its challenges to health and public policy. Each chapter asks how the Japanese public perceives these insecurities; how these perceptions influence the public discourse, the main stakeholders of this discourse, and how this affects state-society relations and government policies. Governing Insecurity in Japan provides new insights into Japanese and international discourses on security and insecurity, and the ways in which security is conceptualized in Japan. As such, it will be of interest to students and scholars working on Japanese politics, security studies and international relations.

This report examines Japanese views of the U.S.-Japan security relationship after the Cold War and considers implications of those views for the United States. Since the end of World War 11, the close U.S.- Japan security relationship has benefited both nations. The United States has been able to anchor its East Asian military presence in Japan, helping to contain communist influence and lending stability to the region. Japan has been able to concentrate on rebuilding its economy with relatively little concern (and cost) for its own defense. But both Tokyo and Washington have begun to reassess their security requirements in view of changing global threats and, in the United States case, in the face of perceptions of long-term economic decline. An important part of this reassessment involves an examination of the purpose and structure of the U.S.-Japan security relationship. In Japan, two events have prompted debate on the security relationship. The first is the apparent disappearance of a security threat from the former Soviet Union. The second is criticism-both domestic and foreign at Japan has received for its limited role in the Persian Gulf War.

Buenos Aires psychoanalysts resisting imperialism. Brazilian parasitologists embracing communism as an antidote to rural misery. Nicaraguan revolutionaries welcoming Cuban health cooperation. Chilean public health reformers gauging domestic approaches against their Soviet and Western counterparts. As explored in Peripheral Nerve, these and accompanying accounts problematize existing understandings of how the Cold War unfolded in Latin America generally and in the health and medical realms more specifically. Bringing together scholars from across the Americas, this volume chronicles the experiences of Latin American physicians, nurses, medical scientists, and reformers who interacted with dominant U.S. and European players and sought alternative channels of health and medical solidarity with the Soviet Union and via South-South cooperation. Throughout, Peripheral Nerve highlights how Latin American health professionals accepted, rejected, and adapted foreign involvement; manipulated the rivalry between the United States and the USSR; and forged local variants that they projected internationally. In so doing, this collection reveals the multivalent nature of Latin American health politics, offering a significant contribution to Cold War history. Contributors. Cheasty Anderson, Anne-Emanuelle Birn, Katherine E. Bliss, Gilberto Hochman, Jennifer L. Lambe, Nicole Pacino, Carlos Henrique Assunção Paiva, Jadwiga E. Pieper Mooney, Raúl Necochea López, Marco A. Ramos, Gabriela Soto Laveaga

Vividly written and based on up-to-date scholarship, this title provides an interpretive overview of the international history of the Cold War.